Veljo Tormis,

Estonian, born 1930. Tormis is the composer most closely identified with the EPCC. He studied in Tallinn and later in Moscow, and although he has written instrumental works, songs, an opera and cantatas with orchestra, it is in the a cappella choral repertoire that Tormis has made his most distinctive mark. One senses in his writing the influence of Bartok and Kodaly, in the manner of adapting folksong practices into an artsong texture which preserves far more of the original impulse than mere harmonisation of the melody. Among the strongest elements to note are the use of repetition, the overlapping of call and response, ceaseless rhythmic energy, and cluster harmonies derived from the melodic contours of the original song.

It was at the composers' own suggestion that we elected to perform these Latvian Bourdon Songs (composed in 1982 and recorded here for the first time), with their distinctive use of the bourdon, or sung drone, a feature drawn directly from the original performance style. The listener will notice certain acoustic effects of distance and movement: these are deliberate and were made with the composer's assistance. A new book about Tormis by American scholar Mimi Daitz is anticipated shortly.